Meet A.U.T.O Lobbyist Veronica Moss

New York City, NY - This is Jonathan's Maus (bikeportland.org) wayward sister who changed the spelling of her name and moved to New York City. They have not spoken for years.

Porltand Bike Rush Hour on Hawthorne!

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PORTLAND, Ore. - I love collaborating with Clarence Eckerson, Jr. You may remember our Sasquatch video. We have a ton of fun talking shop and rollin' tape. In this video are cool bike wheels, Clarence, Greg Raisman, Elly Blue, and bikey SE people (plus a brief shot of the Disco Trike rollin' slow).
Here's more stuff from Streetfilms.org

The first time you visit Portland, Oregon, the gaggles of cyclists streaming over the Hawthorne Bridge during rush hour is a sight you will never forget. It's something other cities need to see and be inspired by.

On a recent vacation there, I couldn't resist cranking out a Streetfilms shortie, so I naturally hooked up with Crank My Chain's Dan Kaufman to capture the essence of the PM rush and talk to cyclists about what it feels like to be a part of the mass of cyclist humanity in Southeast Portland, Hawthorne corridor. As Greg Raisman from Portland's Bureau of Transportation pointed out: 20% of all traffic on the Hawthorne Bridge is bikes. And, Portland's number of cyclists has risen 600% in the last fifteen years and shows no sign of letting up.

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Today is Carfree Day - Watch Parking Day Video

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NEWSFLASH: TODAY IS WORLD CARFREE DAY

NEW YORK, NY -
From StreetFilms.org

Transportation Alternatives reports during this year's foray into PARKing Day there were over 50 parking spaces temporarily reclaimed throughout the city, nearly doubling last year's total. I'll say this: that's a lot of freaking sod!!

As usual for these things, the fare ran from the wildly creative to the calm & soothing. There was a meditation garden in Williamsburg, origami being folded at The Open Planning Project's spot, and a bevy of spots with an advocacy theme. But the strangest time-continuum alternative-universe event occurred at Peter Frishauf's spot on the Upper West Side where I filmed him following the live blogging on Streetsblog about PARKing Day! And finally, although my work comrades had an amazingly elaborate spot, if I had to vote this year's winner it would be the Lower East Side Girl's Club. Again. You guys rock.

This year my travels took me to four of the five boros: biked 43 miles, filmed 22 spots, spent 11 hours outdoors and had one bike crash - while I was walking my bike through Times Square. Go figure!

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Summer Streets 2008 (NYC)

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NEW YORK CITY, NY -
From Streetfilms.org

Feeling remarkably similar to Bogota's Ciclovia, the New York City Department of Transportation held its first Summer Streets event on Saturday by opening 7 miles of city streets to pedestrians and bike traffic only. From 7 AM to 1 PM, roads were car-free from 72nd Street to the Brooklyn Bridge with Park Avenue serving as the backbone of the route. Our Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan is the real deal - she spent the entire day riding a bike around the course (and even said some nice things about me to my mom.)

We'll spare you the 200 adjectives we could list about how transformational it was, for it was beyond anything on the printed page. The general consensus was that the event succeeded beyond even the most hoped for expectations and would pass even the most pessimistic of measuring sticks. A page has been turned, clearly there is no doubt: the future will hold many more large scale street openings for pedestrians, cyclists, runners, children, dog walkers, dancers, and any other reasonable livable space use.

The swarms of people and happy faces made for much positive energy. Around noon, some blocks were getting very crowded, but there was a general courtesy that existed between pedestrians and cyclists. The city built it - and the people came. And they smiled a lot.

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Sunday Parkways "Ciclovía" in Portland

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PORTLAND, Ore. - It's taken me way too long to post this great video by Clarence Eckerson, Jr. of Streetfilms.org. There so many bikey friends, from Aaron Tarfman and his transportation trike, Linda, Timo, and Coach Dan with the 411, and Jonathan Maus Channeling Gil Peñalosa and so many smiles from young and old.

Portland's first Sunday Parkways was a huge success with tens of thousands of Portlanders converging on the North Portland streets, parks and sidewalks. Don't be surprised if this kind of event, originally started in Bogotá, becomes a mainstay all over the world.

Here is the write up from Streetsblog:

Despite a very dreary and damp first half of the day, Portland's first Ciclovia-style street closure, Sunday Parkways, was a smashing success with countless thousands of city residents participating. It was like a giant community block party with walkers, bikers, joggers, bladers, families, and pets filling the 6 mile course.

There were plenty of fun activities in four northeast parks that were linked by the circuit, which was opened to bikes and pedestrian traffic only from 8 AM to 2 PM. For cities planning their own Ciclovias, here are some things I liked about Portland's event: knowledgeable volunteers, lots of fun chalk messages on the ground, easy to follow directions, lots of music & entertainment, and a huge number of bike stations for bike repair.

If you want more Sunday Parkways be sure to let people know.

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Hal Grades Your Bike Locking 5-years Later

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NEW YORK CITY, NY -
From the StreetFilms Blog and Clarence Eckerson, Jr.

Nearly five years ago, legendary bike mechanic Hal Ruzal and I walked the streets surrounding Bicycle Habitat and graded the bike locking ability of New Yorkers - producing many humorous and enlightening anecdotes. The resulting video aired frequently on bikeTV and at many festivals, and because of it - Hal is still frequently asked by complete strangers to judge their bike locking.

I always endeavored doing another, but as with most sequels you need a new wrinkle. This time we thought we’d give Hal some company and invited former Recycle a Bicycle mechanic Kerri Martin (and founder of The Bike Church in Asbury Park, NJ) to weigh in with her expertise. Once again, bikes on the streets of SoHo provide lots of fodder for laughs and lessons to learn.

We didn’t plan to but we walked the same loop and even used the same one-hour time frame. The results? The grades were a little better than five years ago. Sure, still some bad locking out there, but many more people are now sporting multiple locks and better strategies! Good news, maybe we made a difference after all…

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How to use a Bike Box

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NEW YORK CITY, NY - More bike boxes are coming to Portland. Former prize fighter, Clarence Eckerson, of Streetfilms shows us how to use 'em.

From Streetfilms Blog

The NYC DOT has been quietly rolling out dozens of bike boxes all over Gotham. It’s really quite remarkable. But since the majority of riders seem not to know what they are or how to use them just yet, StreetFilms thought this would be a fun way to educate cyclists to love and cherish the Bike Box.

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New York City Recreated in Black Rock City

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Black Rock City, Nev. - Astor Place got rebuilt at Burning Man but what if spirit of Burning Man could be rebuilt in New York City?

Streetfilms takes up the important and harrowing task of exploring the subject. Thanks for doing it, guys, but can I come next time?

iPod/QuickTime Version



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Clarence: The Traffic Calming Wizard

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New York, NY - Clarence Eckerson, Jr.has morphed into a traffic calming Wizard.

From the StreetFilms Vlog:

We went back to check in how things were progressing on the NYC DOT’s plans for the 9th Avenue physically separated bike lane. The pleasant surprises continue as lane improvements, ample signage, and cyclist-only bike signals have now appeared making the innovative project even safer. And although driver behavior continues to improve, there are a few problems to highlight.

If you enjoyed this, check out others in the series: Clarence: The Traffic Calming Sasquatch & Clarence: The Traffic Calming Maniac


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Trading Car Parking for Bike Racks

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BROOKLYN, NY - In a historic first for New York City, the Department of Transportation has replaced three car parking spaces in Williamsburg with bike racks to accommodate about 30 bicycles.

The on-street bike parking, which is right next to the Bedford Avenue stop on the L train, will greatly benefit the burgeoning bicycling mecca of Billyburg. As any visitor or person in the community knows, it is very hard to find a legal spot to lock up your bike there. Hopefully, we will see other places in NYC getting this same treatment.

For more on the history of the project, please see this entry at Streetsblog.

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Improve Your Intersection

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PORTLAND, OR - I'd like to think the reason Clarence Eckerson, Jr. came to town was to have me film him cavorting in a Bigfoot suit. The real reason he was here last week was to shoot this video this great Street Films video on Intersection Repair.

Intersection Repair is part of Village Building Convergence where hundreds of people come together to build diverse projects for the benefit of their communities and to take back their streets. The Sasquatch Video was just bonus.

This is an important and very well done film but at 10 minutes it runs a bit longer than most of our videos. Set aside a few minutes to watch and think about how your neighborhood could be improved by a community building project like this.

Three neighborhoods repair projects are highlighted in this video and the main task was to repaint the street. There is definitely a “Eugene” vibe (a good thing in my book) but each neighborhood had it’s own feel. As this concept takes off it will be interesting to see the different flavors particular neighborhoods bring.

The grid system combined with motor vechicles has a way of separating us as neighbors. Intersection repair seems like a great way to bring us back together.






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New Sasquatch Habitat in Oregon

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PORTLAND, OR - The elusive Sasquatch aka Bigfoot has finally been conclusively captured on video tape in the quiet neighborhood of Ladd's Addition.

Perhaps it is calm nature of the neighborhood streets, which were laid out in the late 1800's and designed to reduce the speed of passing carriages. Or, perhaps it's the additional traffic calming designs that make Bigfoot feel comfortable on a bicycle.

Regardless of the reason, this Sasquatch (named Clarence) is in love with his new home.

This video report was produced by Street Films Clarence Eckerson and yours truly. Streetfilms.org is a video blog that tackles the issues of the livable streets movement. In this tongue-in-check movie we take the concept of "Clarence: The Traffic Calming Maniac" one step further!

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YouTube Version Coming Soon

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